New film uncovers 'homegrown jihad'

Group left off terror list operates 35 training camps across U.S.

A jihadist group responsible for nearly 50 attacks on American soil is operating 35 training camps across the nation, but its name cannot be found on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Exposing Jamaat ul-Fuqra’s threat to the U.S., putting it on the terror list and shutting it down is the aim of a documentary film premiering tomorrow night at the Landmark Theater in Washington, D.C., at 7:30 p.m.

In 2006, the film points out, a Justice Department document, marked “Dissemination Restricted to Law Enforcement,” exposed 35 terrorist training compounds in the U.S. Among the items of evidence was a confiscated terrorist training film by Jamaat ul-Fuqra’s leader, Sheik Muburak Gilani, called “Soldiers of Allah.”

In “Soldiers of Allah,” Jamaat ul-Fuqra’s reason for being in America is clearly stated.

“We are fighting to destroy the enemy. We are dealing with evil at its roots and its roots are America,” declares Giliani.

The training video, featured prominently in CAN’s documentary, teaches American students how to operate AK-47 rifles, rocket launchers, and machine guns; how to kidnap Americans and then kill them; how to conduct sabotage and subversive operations; and how to use mortars and explosives.

Jamaat ul-Fuqra’s attacks on American soil range from bombings to murder to plots to blow up U.S. landmarks.

“Act like you are his friend. Then kill him,” says Gilani, explaining how to handle American “infidels.”

CAN said the more than two years of research it took to make the documentary included going inside the compounds with video cameras and confronting members of the group.

The filmmaker cites a 2006 Department of Justice report saying Jamaat ul-Fuqra “has more than 35 suspected communes and more than 3,000 members spread across the United States, all in support of one goal: the purification of Islam through violence.”

In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security predicted the group would continue to carry out attacks in the U.S.

CAN points out that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was attempting to interview Jamaat ul-Fuqra’s leader, Gilani, in 2002 when he was kidnapped and later beheaded. One year later, Iyman Faris, member of both Jamaat ul-Fuqra and al-Qaida, pleaded guilty in federal court to a plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge.

Gilani was at one time in Pakistani custody for the abduction of Pearl. Intelligence sources also suggest a link between Jamaat ul Fuqra and Richard Reid, the infamous “shoe bomber” who attempted to ignite explosives aboard a Paris-to-Miami passenger flight Dec. 22, 2001.

“What we are witnessing here is kind of a brand-new form of terrorism,” says FBI Special Agent Jody Weis in the documentary. “These home-grown terrorists can prove to be as dangerous as any known group, if not more so,”

As WND reported, a covert visit to a Jamaat ul-Fuqra encampment in upstate New York by the Northeast Intelligence Network found neighboring residents deeply concerned about military-style training taking place there but frustrated by the lack of attention from federal authorities.

Gilani also is the founder of a village in South Carolina called “Holy Islamville.”

Muslims of the Americas Inc., a tax-exempt organization, has been directly linked by court documents to Jamaat ul-Fuqra. The organization operates communes of primarily black, American-born Muslims throughout the U.S. The investigation confirmed members commonly use aliases and intentional spelling variations of their names and routinely deny the existence of Jamaat ul-Fuqra.

The group openly recruits through various social service organizations in the U.S., including the prison system. Members live in compounds where they agree to abide by the laws of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, which are considered to be above local, state and federal authority.

U.S. authorities have probed the group for charges ranging from links to al-Qaida to laundering and funneling money into Pakistan for terrorist activities. The organization supports various terrorist groups operating in Pakistan and Kashmir, and Gilani himself is linked directly to Hamas and Hezbollah.